Strategic Partners buys $900m-plus portfolio shopped by Pictet

Blackstone Group’s Strategic Partners was the buyer of a $900-million-plus portfolio of mostly high-quality private equity funds shopped by Swiss private financial services group Pictet, sources told Buyouts.

The large portfolio was among a slew of such sales to hit the market in the second half of 2021. Sellers sought to take advantage of rich pricing, while buyers have been looking to diversify beyond the concentrated bets they made earlier in the year.

The portfolio was sold with adviser Greenhill & Co. around the end of the year, sources said. Pictet managed the portfolio for an underlying high-net-worth owner, sources said. Spokespeople for Blackstone and Greenhill declined to comment, while no one from Pictet returned a comment request.

Funds in the portfolio included those from Carlyle Group, AEA Investors, BC Partners, CVC Capital Partners, Platinum Equity, Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Arsenal Capital, Vista Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo and Audax, according to information seen by Buyouts.

Many of the funds in the portfolio were considered high quality and likely traded at a rich pricing. The portfolio also included stakes in coinvestments, including those from Carlyle, AEA, Blackstone, BC Partners and KKR, according to the information.

As well, Pictet also sold stakes in secondaries funds managed by HarbourVest Partners, Landmark Equity, AlpInvest and Strategic Partners, according to the information.

It’s not clear if Blackstone was the only buyer. It’s also not clear what part of Pictet Group was the seller. Pictet’s private equity unit is called Pictet Alternative Advisors, which makes primary, secondary and coinvestments and manages $23.8 billion. The group has made 89 coinvestments of more than $820 million, according to its website.

Traditional LP volume was $64 billion in 2021, representing a 156 percent increase from 2020, out of the $132 billion in estimated total activity, according to Jefferies full-year secondaries report.

The sales have come amid an environment of rich pricing, which generally helps convince institutions to move forward with contemplated rebalancing. Pricing for buyout funds hovered around 97 percent of net asset value, Jefferies said.

However, buyers have reported pricing pressure from public market volatility that has roiled the markets since the beginning of the year.